I've worked with hundreds of people who were interested in losing weight. Overthe years I've noticed four areas that I believe are particular hindrancesto weight loss. If your goal is to be successful at losing weight and keeping it off, avoid the "big 4" no-nos.

#1 Big No-No: Not exercising on a daily basis. Daily exercise sends your metabolism through the roof! I have seen VERY FEW peoplewho are not very regular exercisers, loseweight AND keep it off.

Losing weight and maintaining that losscan be very difficult. However, both canbe made considerably easier with regularexercise, preferably in the morning.

If you're interested in losing fat, you'reobjective is to create a daily caloricdeficit. For example, If you're consuming1700 calories per day, and expending 2000calories per day, your caloric deficit is300 calories. Losing a pound of fat requiresa deficit of 3500 calories. So, to lose two pounds per week would require a dailydeficit of 1000 calories.

So, if you'd like to increase your daily caloric deficit, you have two options; 1. To decrease your caloric intake by eatingfewer calories, or..2. To increase your caloric expenditure via more activity / exercise.However, you cannot decrease your dailycaloric intake much lower than 1200 to 1500 or so without potentially creating health and metabolism problems.

In fact, many people's metabolism (basal metabolic rate) is so slow from years of inactivity and dieting, that they are only burning fewer than 1500 calories per day.Without exercise, they would have todecrease their daily caloric intake tounhealthy levels to lose weight. And, acaloric intake that's too low only createsmore metabolism problems and a vicious cycle of more weight gain.

So, the only remaining factor in the deficit equation is caloric expenditure through increased activity / exercise.

The good news is that you can substantiallyincrease your caloric expenditure. Forexample, if you're currently walking for 30 minutes two days per week, over a period of several weeks you can increase your walkingto 60 minutes per day, six to seven daysper week and begin weight training for 30minutes three days per week.

So, in this example, you would increase your monthly exercise minutes from about 240 to 1530. Plus, in addition to the calories thatyou're expending during exercise, you wouldalso substantially increase the number ofcalories you're burning 24 hours-a-day, yes,you'll even burn more calories while you'resleeping because you've fired-up your basalmetabolic rate. You can't beat that, can you?

Here's another VERY important reasonto exercise while you're restrictingcalories and trying to lose weight. you tendto lose muscle tissue from any muscle thatyou're not using while you're restrictingcalories. You've heard it - use it or lose it.And, there are three main consequences to losing muscle;1. Your metabolism (basal metabolic rate)decreases causing you to burn *fewer* calories24 hours-a-day and causing the maintenanceof your weight loss to be very difficult.2. Your muscles get flabby and mushy.3. Your are weaker and become fatiguedmore easily.

#2 Big No-No: Not deciding to make a drasticchange. I've seen this over and over againwith hundreds of people. Unless someonedecides that they are ready to get reallyserious about losing weight and ready tomake drastic changes, their chances of losingweight and keeping it off are not good.

Research continues to indicate thatAmericans are becoming more sedentary..and fatter every year. This move towardinactivity and an increase in body fatis even more pronounced in children, whodon't get out and play anymore. Instead,they sit in front of a TV or computer(perhaps like their parents) for many of their waking hours.

We know that there is a very direct,inverse relationship between a person'slevel of activity and the percentage oftheir weight that is fat. less activityequals more fat, and more activity equalslees fat.

I received an email message recentlythat I'd like to share with you. It's aweight loss and fitness success storythat makes you want to start exercisingwhile you're reading it.

It's from a 48 year-old lady, Elizabeth,who lives in Lexington, Kentucky. Sheis living proof that less activityequals more fat, and more activity equals less fat. Here's her letter:

"Greg, I'm writing to thank you for yourinspiring articles and to tell you aboutmy journey (a rough one) to fitness. Iwas at a healthy weight in my earlytwenties and had my first child at age26. I remained about 30 pounds overweightafter she was born."

"I managed to gain 15 more pounds duringthe next four years, mostly because of several diets I tried. After the birthof my second child at age 31, I was 60pounds overweight and very frustrated.Over the next 15 years I tried numerousdiets (even eating just rice) that ultimate led to me being 120 poundsoverweight."

"I started reading your articles two yearsago and it finally began to sink in. Ifinally realized that exercise wasn'tjust about the calories I was burningduring exercise. I finally realizedthat I would never lose the weight andkeep it off without some real exercisein my life."

"I reached a point in my life where myweight was ruining my life. I got to thepoint where everything was a struggle,none of my fat clothes fit, I didn'twant to see anyone because of the way Ilooked, and even walking made mebreathless. I decided that I would eithermake a drastic change at that point orI would give up. I chose to make a drasticchange."

"I knew that exercise needed to be apriority and so I changed several thingsin my daily schedule to make that happen.I started with very little but I was veryconsistent. I worked up to 45 minutes ofaerobic exercise in the morning and 30 to45 minutes in the evening. On Saturdays,I take a less intense, but longer walkthroughout my area of town enjoying allthe sights. I'm up to 8 to 10 miles onmy Saturday walk. I also weight trainthree days a week. Please don't get theimpression that this was easy. I wentthrough MANY difficult struggles butit definitely got easier as I progressed."

"I'm now 12 pounds from my goal weight. Greg,I can't begin to explain how my life haschanged. Everything is different. Eventhe way people talk to me. It's almostlike people didn't even see the personunder all that fat. Probably best of allis that I have energy to function now.I'm not constantly tired like I used tobe."

"Obviously, my perception of exercise haschanged now. I enjoy it and look forwardto it. I'm planning on doing a halfmarathon (13.1 miles) walk in the fall.Thanks again for your words of encouragement."

ElizabethLexington, Kentucky

Wow! This lady is unstoppable. Notice thatshe first realized the true benefits ofexercise and then decided to do *whatever*she had to for exercise to become aconsistent part of her life.

Exercise radically changes how your bodyhandles fat! when you're sedentary, allthe physiological signals tell your bodyto hang on to the fat and dump the metabolism boosting muscle. When you'reexercising on a daily basis, all thephysiological signals tell your body todump the fat and increase the metabolismboosting muscle. Which signals do you want?

#3 Big No-No: Not taking the time to planand prepare your eating. Healthy eating forweight loss won't just happen, you have tospend time on it.

Not being prepared is a major factor thatleads to overeating and unhealthy eating.Take time to plan your shopping and eatingfor the week. Take time to prepare yourlunch to take to work, and your meal forthe evening, etc. Plan for healthy snacksto have at home, in your car, at work, etc.Our weight loss programs specifically discuss how to set up an effective snackingsystem.

4. Not including intervals in your aerobicexercise. Intervals are brief periods (about one minute) of more intense exercise mixed into yourregular aerobic exercise sessions. Forexample, if you're walking, you would do aone minute interval of faster walking onceevery five minutes throughout your exercisesession.

Here's how it will look.. you'll start withyour normal three to five minute warm-up andthen five minutes into your workout you doyour first interval, one minute of fasterwalking (or perhaps jogging). At the end ofthat minute you should be "winded" and readyto slow down. You'll slow down to your normalexercising speed for the next four minutesand then your fifth minute is another oneminute interval. This pattern continues throughout your exercise session.

You'll derive several benefits from intervals..

1. Intervals can help you to get past aweight loss plateau.

2. Intervals increase your aerobic fitnesslevel by "pushing the envelope". While doingyour interval you cross the anaerobicthreshold into anaerobic metabolism, forcingyour body to become conditioned to more intense exercise.

3. Your increased level of fitness means thata given level of exercise will feel easierand that you will be able to exercise at a higher intensity which "burns" more calories.

4. Your increased level of fitness also meansthat you will be less fatigued from dailyactivities and you'll have more "energy" throughout the day.